Shock tube tip tester
AssigneeRothenbuhler Engineering Co.
InventorHerbert W. Hainey
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A shock tube tip tester determines reliability of a shock tube tip used in a blasting machine. The blasting machine, using shock tubes for non-electric firing, relies on a shock tube tip to initiate the blast. The shock tube tip tester measures the amount of wear and indicates when a particular shock tube tip should be replaced to help prevent misfires or delays in production due to no-fires. The shock tube tip tester includes a mechanical filter suitable for filtering the shock wave pulse created by the shock tube tip, a pressure sensor for sensing the filtered shock wave pulse, and a microprocessor for classifying the shock tube tip into one of several predefined conditions based on either a peak of the shock wave pulse or an area under the shock wave pulse.
Claims8
A tester for determining an operating condition of a shock tube tip, comprising:
- a mechanical filter suitable for filtering a shock wave pulse created by firing the shock tube tip;
- a pressure sensor coupled to the mechanical filter for sensing the filtered shock wave pulse and outputting voltage signals;
- an analog-to-digital converter for receiving the voltage signals from the pressure sensor and converting the voltage signals to a digitized shock wave pulse;
- and
- a microprocessor for classifying the operating condition of a shock tube tip based on a magnitude of a peak of the digitized shock wave pulse or an area under the digitized shock wave pulse.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.